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Don't tell anyone please....I have been stalking my "possible sailing" scheduled for Thanksgiving this November because I lost my August VP cabin this past August and I really needed this cabin. (only 1854 or 1804) and both were previously booked so unavailable for this sailing. Of course we have no assurance this sailing will go, BUT it appeared available Friday night, OMG can I switch ?? Enter Sharla our MEI guru, I called her and shot off an email, understanding fully it was after hours so I did all I could do. Within minutes of my email I received a response simply saying " I'm on i

I bet they were sharing the drink package as well. Just attempting to have a normal cruise board

So this thread is as close as I can find to my L&S news. I'm hijackin' it. Last week @michelle booked the Royal Suite for me on Empress (11-22-20, 6 night Western Caribbean) with the express intent of L&S'ing it to next year. According to the website, the appropriate cruise to which to shift this would have been a 6 night Western Caribbean cruise on Odyssey. YIPPEE ! That sounds great. Since the appropriate shift from a RS on Empress to another ship is an Owner's Suite, I was happy with that idea. So she called and they stone cold refused to make the shift to Odyssey even th

That story is pure clickbait. "The Carnival Cruise Ship That Spread Coronavirus Around the World" Give me a break. Let's conveniently forget that the virus spread across the world on airplanes, which were never stopped at all and given a free pass for being the primary means of transmission from one country or continent to another.

@MattJust a short post to say the Boards look FANTASTIC on Chrome! Love what you've done with the place!!

Well, we did it ! Put down a down payment to get started. Picked out a house and lot. Should be ready in just a bit more than a year. Meanwhile, we must return to VA and sell our house. We will move into something temp locally and move to FL when our new house is ready. We will be in a brand new phase of the development so right now, there is nothing but dirt and sand there. So, flying back early tomorrow. Upgraded to FC so happy about that. What a whirlwind ! It might sound like an impulse buy to some, but truthfully, this is our fourth trip to FL house-hunting. We trie

I am bored and tired of not having any live blogs to read, so I’m going to create a live blog about coming to Florida on a house-hunting recon. While no one is interested in my house-hunting per se, I will devote this blog to discussions on travel and public discourse.... I mean, being out and about ...during the plague. We left Virginia on Thursday morning. Uber to the airport - Uneventful. This was the first time we had gone north (in, towards DC) since the lockdown, so we had no idea what rush hour traffic would be like. We gave ourselves plenty of time, but it was unnecessa

Curious with your ill towards America if feel the same towards Quebec. With only 23% of the country's population Quebec accounts for 48% of the Canada's COVID cases. Pretty much half of Canada's cases can be found in Quebec. So what went so wrong in Canada that one region, the largest province with a significant population is such a disaster? It's easy to find statistics and focus on them to formulate an opinion. You paint the entire U.S.A. with one brush yet your own country if painted in the same manner should be feared around the world. How about we focus on cruising an

You think? Might also be the reason why @Matt is so highly regarded in the “cruise world” and he is sometimes privy to info and invites that others are not. Also the reason why he takes pride in only reporting what is fact, not gossip or hearsay.

It was our 7th wedding anniversary and we decided to take the 2019 holiday cruise on Mariner since we never had a honeymoon. We had so much fun but one of our favorite things is the unlimited dining package! We are foodies so we tried every restaurant. We went to Izumi Hibachi twice because the food was soooo good!

One the key takeaways for me is the idea that the CDC would no longer have exclusive control of the cruise industry. At the moment the CDC does have singular control with no check or balance from any other component of government. They are "king" of the cruise industry. Whatever the king says is the law of the land. Under the proposed bill the CDC would be one of many agencies providing input to the panel but the CDC wouldn't be the sole decision maker, the panel can make a balanced, informed decision, at least in theory. The CDC has stated that one concern and reason for th

...and here I was about to welcome you to South Carolina....

Negative....but look for us on America’s Most Wanted b/c someone is likely to die before it’s over.

They must have sensed the suite snob coming from a mile away! Lol. Honestly, it was out of the blue. We showed up early to the terminal out of habit so it was pretty quiet when we checked in. Right after we checked in, we settled down on some of the couches in the terminal and one of their cast members came up to us and said they would like to make us family of the day. It wasn’t our first DCL cruise but I still had no idea what it was. He then explained that we would get to board first and we would have to go with him to a separate boarding area and I was like, “Say no more! We’ll take

Took our grandson on his first cruise in February- 4 day Mariner out of PC. Love the picture of him in a “Superman” pose on the flowrider!

My (then) 19 y/o son did the second leg of my back to back with me back in Jan-Feb. I encouraged him to go Quest even though I was too tired to go. He went and ended up being a team captain. The next day we kept running into people he knew from the night before....he was very chatty with everyone, high fives and fist bumps all around....and this is a kid who struggled with anxiety through his teen years. Ever since that week on Adventure, he has been able to deal with his anxiety in a much more positive way.

Muster 2.0 sounds like it will be permanent

Last question on the survey . On the scale of lots of money versus metric crap ton of money, how much do you want to spend on the Deluxe Beverage Package

Visiting Chichen Itza on our Harmony cruise in February Always been on my bucket list and despite a long traveling day , it was just incredible!

Our last cruise was the Anthem cruise that was truncated due to suspected COVID cases (which proved to be completely false). We were supposed to go to the Bahamas and ended up in Bermuda instead. The nice part of the cruise was the reduced capacity - I think we sailed with around 60% capacity. It was nice, even though shorter than it was supposed to be. We had a great time. We were supposed to receive OBC for 50% of the cruise fare and receive an FCC for the other 50%...essentially a free cruise...but somehow we came out ahead by about $650. No idea how that happened. We went out with a

We tip in Canada too, just saying...

I came across this video today of someone that is onboard one of the ships that has started sailing (MeinSchiff Blaue Reise). He talks about how boarding was different and the procedures they have on the ship. I thought it was interesting and possibly what it would look like when we can start back.

I hear she is pretty cool and she really likes wine. And champagne.

Positive news for sure. I also saw similar posts and boy do I hope they are right. Until official I've now instructed the dog to cross his claws in addition to me crossing my fingers and toes. The dog didn't look pleased.

Have you seen the great results MSC and others have had in Europe to resume cruises? That's fantastic news.

Other than the "big move" we don't have anything but cruises planned. Believe it or not, Dan has never gone to Disney World. He grew up in SoCal so he's been to Disneyland a brazillion times but never WDW. We may sneak up to Orlando once we get settled if the parks are open and we can fit it in between cruises !! We have 21 cruises on the books from Nov 2020 through April 2022. I hold out very little hope that our 4 in 2020 (2 in NOV and 2 in DEC) will actually sail, but they're still on the books and I received cruise docs for my B2B on NAV Nov 6-13. Most of these are B2B with 1 B3B

My favorite memory was shocking Mr. SpeedNoodles when we were on an ATV tour in Puerto Rico last February on our Symphony sailing - It was only the 2nd time I'd ever driven an ATV (the first time being the day before, mostly on paved roads), and the mud was up to a foot deep in places. He didn't think I"d even try to go through some of the big puddles or mud, but I just dove into them the entire time and never got stuck - he was shocked! It's not easy to shock your husband after 26 years of marriage!

Just a friendly reminder not to make any decisions until they do formally announce the change. I'd hate to see anyone make a pre-emptive change and then regret it later because the specifics ended up being different.

@twangster, I could not just like your post. I wanted to personally thank you for your time in articulating that point. I feel more educated now and even better about it because of your input, and as always you have the BEST pics! Thanks so much, you enlightened me and that is so appreciated, cheers to you!

At this point, it's just a bill and at best, it is aimed at both Senators' constituents to make it look like they are on their side. It still needs to get to a vote, as well as actually pass the Senate and then the House. Without getting into any kind of political discussion, that is far from a certainty. Back to the idea of the bill, on the one hand yes it does feel a little late, but then again, until cruise lines in Europe managed to sail, no politicians were talking about cruising restarting. On the other hand, I look at this less as legislation salvation, but honest to good

I got it too and suggested they hire Matt Hochberg to completely redesign and implement a new website.

Do you have a picture of the restroom on Deck 5, starboard near the theater?

That's a slippery slope. How many slots do Full Suites vs. Junior Suites get? Pinnacles? The Key? D+ then D and so on down the chain? It's one thing to say if you are checked in and waiting in the terminal, then here is the boarding order. It's another to reserve slots for arrival because at what point do you they give up on a "class" that hasn't checked in online to get their arrival time? I suspect they will adopt something like the Sydney, Australia format. In Sydney only Star Class really gets priority arrival/check-in at the terminal. I didn't get a special early

Well this is bad news...I wanted to try suites because of @WAAAYTOOO, then I could not pass up Star Class because of @WAAAYTOOO's blogs and posts, now I am reading a @WAAAYTOOO moving to Florida blog...I want to move too!!! Very envious Raye, and also very excited for you and Dan. The house that Hubby and I live in right now we moved in when it was brand new. Same, all dirt and sand and not much else in the area. I can tell you that 8 years later, it still brings a smile when I look around and see how the area has evolved and how much our own property has evolved. There is a lot of

It’s on Hallmark right now. Sounds so silly but man, it hurts. Chops, Central Park, Boardwalk. Goofy acting but I’m only watching to see the ship. I’m afraid I’ll burst into tears when I get to board again. I’ll be the one crying at embarkation next May lol.

A few years ago I sailed on Grandeur with my mother. The maitre'd came around to each table on the first night asking how everything was. The couple next to us said it wasn't good. The maitre'd asked what was wrong and how can they make things better, etc. They just shrugged and said it wasn't good food. My mother chimed in and said, "Well I thought everything was absolutely delicious!" That couple never returned to the dining room for the rest of the cruise, which was nice because we didn't want to be around negativity.

The card I got from the cast of Grease on the Independence. I do production photography for the actors and this is the first time the cast did anything like this. What a great bunch!

Here in a landlocked state a senior bridge tournament on February 29 killed 13 and infected dozens more. Contact tracing did not show any cruise ship history. Cruise ships made the world wide news, the seniors who died made the local news. The entire COVID-19 disaster in the NYC area occurred from spread on airplanes from Europe in February and March leading to the spring outbreak. Did the virus spread on cruise ships? Yes. Did the virus spread in churches, schools, airplanes, buses, trains, restaurants, bars and so on? Yes. That's what this virus does - it spreads anywher

When I travel internationally I research before leaving home and I strive to follow local cultures and expectations. I am a visitor in their country, it's the least I can do. I don't try to learn all the socioeconomic factors involved or try to understand healthcare systems, taxation, wage laws and so on. I research what the locals do and do my best to follow their lead. It's not my place to judge other cultures, traditions or expectations so I don't. The U.S. is different than many regions. Which is better or right is a complex question. Tipping norms vary by region. I probably o

Being Scottish i tried to work out how many drinks i could have had in the time it took to create the spreadsheet

Yes, but I didn't think you'd like me posting your picture like that.

@twangster I love how you have a picture for everything!

To be clear, nothing has been announced yet that boarding times have changed. For all we know, RC's app is acting up again. And to @twangster's point, even if later embarkation is a thing, RC has said many policies will evolve over time, and policies added for the first few months may go away later.

I know what I am about to impart may be met with happiness or derision but here is the latest. Our agent spoke with her rep at RCCL this week and this what she was told. "Everything is looking good with Europe slowly opening up. She further stated that RC is going ahead with their plans for Nov 1 so PLAN WITH CONFIDENCE!!" So we went ahead and paid off our Nov 28th cruise. Again this is info directly from RC.

Hmm...here at Royal Caribbean Blog, we firmly believe in “YOLO! Book It!” No such thing as too many or excessive.

YES!!!!!! I'm hoping @Matt is right about her staying in Baltimore. Here's the key difference between her and Enchantment ..... The specialty restaurants. Enchantment only has Chops, While, my beloved Lady G also has Giovanni's Table, and, my favorite, Izumi ---- which sits on the backside of the VCL ---- amazing views from there (pictured). In a year of shitty news, we really needed this.

Just a reminder that if you book flights through Royal's Air2Sea department they don't require payment until your cruise final payment date, and you are able to cancel your flights up til that date as well. I have added flights through Air2Sea to lock in price and availability, and then kept checking to see if I could get a better price elsewhere. When I did find a better price, just called Royal and had them take the Air2Sea flight off my reservation.

This is slightly different subject but somewhat aligned, so I will use this opportunity to brag on my wondiferous Travel Agent yet one more time !!! @michelle has once again proven that she is the TOP TOP of the heap (no disrespect intended. It's a FABULOUS heap) for customer service - especially since she has been working for 6 months on a DAILY (and often more than that) basis for us for $-0-... I have read, from time-to-time, people ask whether or not they can "swap" cabins with a family member or another reservation. It's not a super common question, but I have heard it asked before

Aqua Theater Emoji Sunset picture...at 5 o'clock There's only one ship that still offers the AquaTheater Emoji Sunset picture.